Paperback Romance
by DreadNot
Summary: Fluffy bit of IxS written for seraskelia


_Okay, this was my first go at a fem pairing. Written for seraskelia with the smutty part hidden away elsewhere. This part ends innocently after only one kiss. Yes, this is IxS. If that bugs you, the back button would be your friend right about now.  
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Why did she do it? Seriously? Why did she cut her finger and offer me the blood?_

_I just don't get it. She's so…she's so what? So cold? So self-contained? She's just so bloody Integra._

_So warm, and fresh, and sweet, and all that just from a finger. The only thing better would have been if she'd taken off her glove first. I can almost taste what it would be like to run my tongue along her skin with all that blood just under the surface…_

"Seras!"

Seras Victoria snapped out of her daydreams. She was supposed to be learning how to fill out the incident reports, not fantasizing about eating her boss.

Integra was looking at her with an odd expression. "Seras, you're leaking."

_Leaking?_ She put her hand to her face.

"You are leaking your thoughts," Integra said slowly and distinctly.

"Oh my God! Sir Integra, I'm so sorry." Seras was mortified and knocked her chair over in her haste to rise and hurry out of the room.

Integra watched her leave, shaking her head at the embarrassed girl. She leaned over and spoke into the intercom, "Walter, if you see Miss Victoria run by, tell her that she is required in my office."

•••

Walter didn't have to put much effort into finding Seras, she nearly bowled him over as he left his office to walk to her quarters to relay Sir Integra's message. "Miss Victoria, what's so urgent?"

He watched with amusement as she stammered something mostly incoherent about having offended Sir Integra and how horribly embarrassed she was. "It doesn't seem to me that Sir Integra is particularly offended by whatever it is you think you've done. She sent me to find you and inform you that you are to go to her office."

The smiling butler gently took her arm and steered her back in the direction of their leader's office. "Miss Victoria, trust me, by now I have a good feel for Sir Integra's moods and she is not angry. If you make her wait too long, though, she will be."

•••

Seras peeked her head in Integra's door, expecting a bullet between the eyes. "Walter told me you wanted me to come back, Sir Integra. I'm so sorry, I-"

"Stop apologizing, it's quite annoying. Come over here and sit down." Integra motioned to Seras' chair, which she had righted while the girl was gone. She watched her subordinate as she walked across the room and gingerly sat on the edge of the chair.

"I think that it's important that we clear the air. If your distraction by my little gesture continues, it may interfere with more important matters than my teaching you how to properly fill out paperwork." When Seras opened her mouth to protest, Integra cut her off abruptly, "Don't tell me you aren't distracted. It can't be a minor issue when a vampire is so obsessed with a subject that she broadcasts her thoughts inadvertently."

Alucard's rumble intruded, "Oh, it isn't a minor issue, Master. The Police Girl needs to learn more discipline in her thoughts and about whom she has them" Seras shrank against her chair as Alucard rose through the floor next to her and scowled down at her.

"Shut up, Alucard. I'll handle this." Integra's harsh gaze almost physically pushed Alucard away from his intimidation of Seras, although he didn't leave the room. "Seras, ever since the war, you've had less control over your interest in blood than you used to. I find it to be cause for concern that your interest is focusing so tightly on me of late."

Seras looked from one Master to the other. She turned a pleading face back to Integra, "Sir Integra, I…please, can I talk about this with you in private?"

Integra watched her steadily before making her decision, "Alucard, the new troops need some additional training in handling vampire attacks. Go find Captain Edwards and have him put you to use." She waited until the vampire had withdrawn before commenting with a slight smirk, "Getting shot at by a bunch of terrified rookies should keep him out of our way for a few hours."

She sobered once more and fixed Seras with a piercing look, "Now that we're alone, what was it you needed to tell me in private?"

Seras closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. Integra's scent came to her across the few feet separating them. It was a combination of blood and woman and the faint fragrance of the soap she used. Seras thought it was probably the single most delicious smell she had ever in her short life encountered. She was absolutely terrified to admit to Sir Integra what she was going to, but thought that it was for the best that she come clean to her superior. Maybe coming out and saying it would help her put her obsession to rest. Or get her laid to rest by a blessed silver bullet in the heart – either way, at least she wouldn't have to try to hide her secret anymore.

"Sir Integra, I-" her throat closed up on her. "I-" She just couldn't choke it out. She took another deep breath of the sweet smell of Integra and allowed her inner nature to push her forward, off the chair, and across the few feet separating them.

Her unnatural speed allowed her to place her lips gently against Integra's before the woman could react to Seras' movement. Integra went rigid against Seras' kiss and the younger woman pulled back after a moment to look at Integra's cold blue eyes. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "It's not just your blood I've been unable to get out of my mind."

She stepped back as Integra stood and looked down at her. _She's going to call Alucard now and I'm going to die._ "Miss Victoria, I think you should return to your room. I'll let you know when you're needed again."

•••

Seras sat in her room and stared at the wall. She was ready for almost anything. Integra would probably tell Alucard to discipline her when he got back from running the troops in circles. He'd had a lot of tension to work off since the war and Seras assumed he'd be taking that out on her soon.

_What on earth was I thinking? I'm lucky she didn't call Walter up to turn me into Seras cubes with his wires. _

She jumped a little when a knock sounded on her door. "Come in."

The last person she expected was the one who walked through her door.

"I need to talk to you," said Integra.

They sat on opposite ends of Seras' coffin bed. Integra leaned against one of the posts that supported the canopy cum lid. Seras was carefully worrying a loose thread at the hem of her skirt while she waited for the dressing down Integra was there to deliver. She looked up as Integra spoke, "You took me by surprise upstairs. I didn't expect you, of all people, to have the motivations you showed me. I thought you were relatively harmless."

"I am! I'd never do anything to hurt you, Sir." Seras leaned forward in her eagerness to reassure Integra, which seemed to have the opposite effect as Integra leaned away from her. "I'm sorry. I've messed everything up."

"I believe that I told you that your continual apologizing was quite annoying." She sighed and looked at Seras. "Come over here."

Seras looked at Integra, perplexity written across her face.

"Those are simple words, Seras: come over here." Was that a smile at the edge of Integra's lips?

Seras scooted across the bed to within three feet of Integra. "Closer." Another foot. "Closer, Seras." When Seras was within Integra's reach, she reached out and pulled the smaller woman around and settled her, leaning her back against Integra's chest. Integra's lips curled up in an unmistakable smile as Seras sat stiffly against her boss.

She wrapped her arms around Seras' tiny waist and spoke quietly in her ear, "Now listen to me. It may not work like this in whatever romance novels you read, but in my life, when someone kisses me unexpectedly, I need time to think before leaping into his or her embrace. My life is too complicated to not give all new circumstances their due regard.

"There are many things I must consider before entering any sort of potential romantic entanglement. So far, in my life, those considerations have led me to forego entanglements entirely. Issues of trust, propriety, my reputation, my own regard for myself, the demands a lover might make, even issues as prosaic as the fact that my virginity is a bait that helps to keep your Master in check.

"You've muddled that for me a bit, Seras." When Seras attempted to turn around to look at Integra, her arms tightened around the smaller woman, holding her in place. "Be still and let me finish.

"I trust you. Without you, I wouldn't have survived the war. It might be improper to consider a relationship with my female vampire; but again, I trust you to be discrete, knowing that you would hold my reputation in your hands. I trust you not to make demands on me, knowing that if someone makes demands between the two of us, it will be I. And again, to be purely cynical, a physical relationship with a woman would not nullify Alucard's interest in me. Thus allowing me to continue to dangle that carrot in front of your mule of a Master.

"In that very pragmatic context, I'm going to give you the opportunity to rethink your feelings about me."

Seras sat quietly, trying to wrap her mind around what Integra had just told her. The biggest, hardest to ignore part was that Integra had not only given thought to having a relationship with Seras, she was offering the vampire what she had wanted since at least the day that Integra had fed her. Seras had never wanted to make demands of Integra – that would just be wrong. Who demanded anything of Integra besides the Queen and maybe her Master? There really wasn't any question what her answer would be.

Seras allowed her body to relax against Integra's. She looked up at Integra's intent face and smiled at her. "I know you're the one who will make the demands, but when you are ready to make one, it would be nice if the demand was for a kiss."


End file.
